Saturday 24 October 2015
Name: Daniel Purvis
Age: 24
Nationality & Hometown: British & Southport
Daniel medalled at the 2010 World Gymnastics Championships winning bronze on Floor and is four time All-Around British champion (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015). He was part of the Great Britain men’s 2012 Olympic bronze medal winning team. In 2014 he took European Floor bronze and Commonwealth Games (Team Scotland) Parallel Bars gold, Team silver and Rings bronze.
Dan will compete today as part of the GBR men’s Team.
How do you feel about being selected for this set of iconic photos?
The pictures look good. It was really cool. I didn’t realise how much work goes into posing and everything. It’s more difficult than I thought!
When did your passion for gymnastics begin and how did you get involved in the sport?
My passion at first was at football because my brother was a footballer, so I thought I would try a bit of that when I was 7. It didn’t go too well; I had no natural ability for that. I was quite hyperactive though, so someone recommended gymnastics and I just loved it straight away and it took a while to discipline myself and know what’s going on. It was when I got to ten that I thought this is what I want to do as a career. It was unlike any other sport that I tried when I was younger and I did a few of them. You have to condition all parts of your body and then you have the fun stuff like swinging round the high bar and that is what got me hooked.
What is your career highlight to date?
It has to be the 2012 Olympic medal and the home crowd. That was fantastic and also up there was the Commonwealth Team medal, the first one for Scotland and individually the gold on Parallel Bars, so definitely my top three. It was great to do all of those in front of a home crowd.
What is it like coming back to compete on home soil in Glasgow?
It’s always fantastic competing here. I’ve done quite a few World Cups but a World Championships is a bit different. There’s a different expectation but the Commonwealth Games was fantastic and there was a lot of pressure on us there and we delivered, so hopefully we can do the same again and with the crowd behind us, it helps so much. Hopefully we can stay calm and hit our routines.
How else will you spend your time while you’re back in Scotland?
It has been such a long preparation all year to get to the World Championships, so hoping to give my body a rest. It’s actually my Nan’s birthday soon, so I will be going to visit her and all my family. So, yeah, I’ll be back in Dundee and might try and come back to Glasgow for a night.
What do you think of the Championships venue – The SSE Hydro?
It looks fantastic. We came in to watch the girls two days ago and we couldn’t believe how different the arena looks for the World Championships. The lighting, the judges are a bit further back, it’s all a bit futuristic and coming out and competing and training here today it looks really good. I’d like to see this continued in other World Championships.
Photo – Daniel Purvis outside The SSE Hydro by Alistair Devine & Stuart Gray